Photos of the Day 01/25

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Ducks dive in search of food at a pond in Minsk, Belarus, on Monday. Sergei Grits/AP

A baby sits in a basket while waiting to board a train in Nanjing, China, on Monday. China's railways are expected to carry 210 million passengers during the upcoming 40-day travel peak as people celebrate the traditional Spring Festival holiday and the Chinese New Year. Sean Young/Reuters

The face of a Cameroon soccer fan is seen painted with the team's colors during their African Nations Cup quarter-final soccer match against Egypt in Benguela, Angola, on Jan. 25. Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters

University students shout slogans against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez during a protest in Caracas, Venezuela, on Monday. Police fired tear gas and plastic bullets to disperse the students that protested after the government forced Radio Caracas television station, RCTV, off cable television. Fernando Llano/AP

Survivors of the Haiti earthquake walk off a US Air Force C-17 transport plane on the tarmac at Orlando-Sanford International Airport in Sanford, Fla., on Monday. Evacuation flights from Haiti to Sanford are continuing daily. Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel/AP

President Barack Obama and basketball player Kobe Bryant pose for a photo during a ceremony to honor the 2009 NBA Basketball Champions, the Los Angeles Lakers, in the East Room of the White House on Jan. 25. Jim Young/Reuters

A wind surfer flips in the air as he rides on waves in the Mediterranean Sea at Bat Galim Beach in Haifa, Israel, on Monday. During the annual Storm Rider wind surfing championship, 32 of the best wind surfers in Israel challenged winds over 30 miles per hour and 15-foot waves. Ariel Schalit/AP

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen gives a speech to the 2010 Military Healthy System Conference in Washington on Monday. Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Residents gather at the site of a bomb attack in central Baghdad, Iraq, on Jan. 25. At least 36 people were killed in a series of car bombs detonated at three well-known hotels in the city, police said. Mohammed Ameen/Reuters

Jane Helser sews together a football as the Wilson Sporting Goods factory in Ada, Ohio, begins making official game balls for the NFL Super Bowl XLIV on Monday. The factory began making the game balls Sunday evening, immediately after the conclusion of the NFC and AFC Championship games. The Indianapolis Colts will face the New Orleans Saints in the Super Bowl on Feb. 7 in Miami, Fla. Amy Sancetta/AP

Customers enter the Fifth Avenue Apple store in New York City on Jan. 25. Brendan McDermid/Reuters

US Census Bureau Director Robert Groves arrives in the remote Inupiat Eskimo village, Noorvik, Alaska, in a dogsled driven by resident Brian Coffin on Monday. Groves came to the village to formally launch the US's 2010 count of residents. Carolyn Kaster/AP

Lebanese naval vessels search for debris and survivors at the site where an Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed into the Mediterranean Sea on Monday, minutes after taking off from Beirut in a thunderstorm. Reuters

As Venezuelan politicians prepare for long-delayed gubernatorial elections, some opposition members have argued that their participation would validate the increasingly undemocratic government. But memories of a backfiring boycott in 2005 have hung over the decision.

Since April, Venezuela’s opposition coalition seemed to be gaining the kind of support and momentum it was long criticized for lacking. Its calls for peaceful protests and boycotts were met by a broad, consistent turnout, and an unofficial referendum it organized in July led more than 7 million Venezuelans at home and abroad to condemn the increasingly authoritarian moves of President Nicolás Maduro’s government.